X-ray and gamma ray sources are presently being used in a wide array of medical and industrial machinery, and the breadth of such use expands from year to year. Consumers tend to notice medical and dental X-ray machines, but in addition to these applications there are baggage screening machines, CAT scan machines, non-destructive industrial inspection machinery and ion implantation machines used in the manufacture of silicon wafer computer chips. All require that high voltage generated within the device be contained, and furthermore that radiation be contained and directed. In particular, the ion implantation machinery increased in the 1980's and 1990's with the silicon chip boom.
In the past, lead itself or lead-polymer composites were used to make electrical insulator items. But there are numerous problems with the use of lead. One problem with lead is that it is toxic and thus subject to increasingly stringent legal controls. Another issue is that lead may not have the mechanical or electrical properties desired for a given application. Lead has been used in various forms in wide range of applications: machined, as a solid-casting, as a solid encased within a matrix such as a polymer matrix, or as a filler. As a filler, it may be lead particles, tribasic lead-sulfate or lead-oxide particles or particles of a specified shape or size, or as a mixture with other materials such as tin. Tungsten shielding, or polymer-tungsten shielding has also been used. Examples of all of these methods may be found in the prior art.
In general, polymer-metal composites are materials having a polymer matrix containing particles of a metal compound intermixed therein. The polymer may advantageously have plastic properties allowing for ease of manufacture, but a wide variety of polymers are known for use in such composites. In the prior art, lead has been a particularly favored material for its density and ease of working. Tungsten has been favored more recently, despite cost concerns. Three characteristics in particular which make such materials desirable are electrical non-conductivity, radiological shielding ability, and high density.
There is a growing list of applications for which polymer-metal composite materials are either required or advantageous. Ion implantation machine source insulators, X-ray tube insulation, radioisotope housings, and other castings and housings could benefit from the properties of polymer-metal composite materials. In the case of typical high voltage insulators for ion implantation machinery, a thick walled generally round or cylindrical part is created out of lead or polymer-lead-oxide ranging from an inch to several feet or more in long dimension and weighing anywhere up to 500 pounds. Wall thickness may range from ½ inch to several inches. Such parts must resist high voltages, shield against x-ray or gamma ray emission and hold a high vacuum state when connected to the vacuum chamber. High voltage X-ray shielding for X-ray tube insulators is generally thinner (often 0.070 inch thickness), generally smaller, and of different shape, having an aperture for the X-ray beam, but once again must offer high voltage insulation and radiation protection. The lead in such devices obviously presents an environmental challenge to manufacture, use, and disposal.
In the processing of lead precursor filled plastics known in the art, specialized facilities, handling procedures, training, and safety equipment must be used to protect the employees from the lead precursor they handle. Lead-based dust is a particular concern, being airborne and inhalable. Such dust may be generated during mixing, molding, deflashing, machining, and finishing of final products such as insulators or shields, to say nothing of earlier stages of mining, smelting, and refining of lead and the final disposal of the used product at the end of its useful life. Even during the life span of the product, it is illegal to sand, machine, alter or use the product in any way that will generate dust. All such processes must be carried out at special lead handling sites, and all waste dust from any of these processes must be collected in accordance with OSHA regulations and transported to hazardous waste land fills in accordance with OSHA and DES guidelines.
Various radio-opaque agents are known which are used for diverse applications. Importantly, however, certain families of compounds are disfavored as having many of the same issues as lead and lead oxides. For example, the barium family of compounds are almost without exception subject to regulation due to their toxic nature. Other than the Applicant's previously issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,638,783 B2, issued on Dec. 29, 2009, entitled, “Lead Free Barium Sulfate Electrical Insulator and Method of Manufacture,” which is incorporate herein by reference in its entirety, it is not previously known to use such barium family compounds in amounts greater than 10% by volume, since the structures in which they are emplaced are radio-opaque, not radiation barriers.
Internalized by law into the manufacturing process, such safety issues dramatically increase the cost of such products, which in turn increases other medical or industrial costs.
Various metals might be explored for lead replacement. In such cases, it is natural enough to skip metals having families which are generally considered toxic or too expensive, and to skip those generally used in radio-opaque applications rather than radiological blocking applications. Thus, it would be natural to skip the barium family of compounds, since these are highly regulated.
It would be preferable to explore the use of other materials which are non-toxic and thus considerably safer than lead or certain available alternatives.